Mission: Kilimanjaro 2023
The roots of Climbing For Christ are found in the East African country of Tanzania. Mission: Kilimanjaro 2023 is our 15th expedition here. Check for Dispatches from Feb. 24 to March 10. Mission: Malawi 2023 will follow March 11-20.
Nationality: American. Occupation: RN. Missions with C4C: Kilimanjaro 2023 and Malawi 2023. How long have you climbed? First multi-day backcountry hiking trip in Wind Rivers (Wyoming) when I was a young teen. Type of climbing you do: Light mountaineering. Have hiked Mount Rainier, Granite Peak in Montana, and Gannett Peak in Wyoming. A lot of boulder crossing and glacier traversing. Highlight of climbing career: Summit of Gannett Peak with my dad.
Answering the call
Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). God has planned for guides and porters in Climbing For Christ’s Kilimanjaro Chapter to reach people with the Good News. People in their families, their communities, and in their path on Mount Kilimanjaro.
The royal priesthood of guides and porters
Kingdom worker Damson Samson shared with Kilimanjaro Chapter guides and porters about the overarching theme of Climbing For Christ: to reach the unreached, and to equip, encourage, and empower disciples to make more disciples of Jesus.
Discovering the Bible
Climbing For Christ has come a long way from its birth by God in the heart of Gary Fallesen before a Kilimanjaro climb in 1998. Guides and porters do more than work on Mount Kilimanjaro now. They are disciples being taught to make disciples and plant churches in East Africa. We are celebrating the 25th anniversary of Gary’s first climb and teaching Kilimanjaro Chapter members more about “Discovering the Bible.”
Faith in action moving mountains
Kilimanjaro will always have a special place in our hearts because this is where, in 1998, God birthed the idea of His ministry, Climbing For Christ. This time (our 14th expedition to Tanzania) was particularly satisfying. Even though our team was stormed off the mountain for the first time in nine treks up the 19,341-foot (5,895-meter) peak, we were blessed to interact more than ever with the guides and porters working with us.
Mission: Kilimanjaro 2022
Scheduled March 24-April 9. Check back for daily updates.
From porters to pastors
Our first quarterly training in 2022 of the Kilimanjaro Chapter resulted in highlights such as the conclusion of the advanced DMD study of our original class of 28 guides and porters, the continuation of training for the second class of 35 guides and porters, the leading of a half-dozen people to a relationship with Jesus during home visits, the restoration of some marriages and families, and healings for some enduring illness and bondage to sin.
Chronicling Climbing For Christ's work in Tanzania since God birthed the ministry before a climb there in 1998 and expeditions have been carried out since 2007.
Dry lands to fertile mountain soil
The Kingdom of God has been expanded greatly on and around Mount Kilimanjaro. At first, “it was like a dry land where no hope was expected,” Damson Samson recalled. He met brothers in Christ who were going to church, “but not knowing the power of the Word.”
Now there is a disciple-making movement (DMM) occurring near Africa’s rooftop – and elsewhere in the Climbing For Christ world. Lives, communities, and churches have been transformed.